Resolutions

A new year and a new decade is approaching. For years I always made new resolutions as part of my celebration. Like most people I didn’t keep all of them, but I find that when striving for a goal even if I don’t keep it all the time I do better than if I have no goal at all. But last year D1 introduced me to something that I really enjoyed doing and so I thought I’d pass the idea along to you.

Instead of goals or resolutions last year I choose one word to define my year: positive. All year long I repeated the word and thought about being positive and finding the positive in any situation or in other people. The surprising thing was to watch how one word made such a difference in my life. I’d start to feel discouraged or sad at something that was happening and then I’d catch myself and simply say, “Positive, Sherrie, positive,” and the feelings would change and I’d start to see things differently; I’d see the good instead of the bad. It never felt oppressive or burdensome like goals sometimes do. I never had that, “I have to do this” feeling.

This year I had trouble deciding between the words simplify and rejuvenate. I finally choose rejuvenate. I want to rejuvenate old friendships, present friendships, my Church calling, my teaching, my prayers, my faith, my health, my life—everything! Whatever I’m doing I’m going to put more enthusiasm and effort into it and see how I can do it a little better. I’ll let you know how it goes.

If any of you want to pick a word and make a "word resolution" leave a comment here about the word you have chosen. That way we can get ideas from each other and besides that committing to something in writing always makes the commitment stronger. We'll help each other keep our commitments!

Happy new word!